british romantic literature lesson: wordsworth : the poet

Wordsworth : The Poet And His Selected Poems

Institute of Lifelong Learning, university of Delhi

British Romantic Literature

Lesson: Wordsworth : The Poet And His Selected Poems

Lesson Developer: Shivani Jha

College/Department: Bharati College, University of Delhi



Portrait of William Wordsworth by Benjamin Robert , en.wikipedia.org

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Historical Background

Literary Background

Biographical Note

Biographical Timeline

Wordsworth‟s Treatment of Nature

„Ode on Intimations of Immortality‟

„Tintern Abbey‟

Audio& Video Links

Works Cited

Historical Background (1790-1830)



File:Rydal Mount, Lake District, Home of William Wordsworth.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org

The first half of the nineteenth century records the triumph of Romanticism in literature and

of democracy in government. This age of popular government and of romantic literature

celebrated the essential nobleness of common men and the value of the individual. The

period between the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the English Reform Bill of

1832, was of tremendous political upheavals characterizing the age as the "the age of

revolution". The French Revolution and the American commonwealth, as well as the

establishment of a true democracy in England by the Reform Bill, were the inevitable results

of ideas which literature had disseminated rapidly and widely. Burns's Poems and Thomas

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rydal_Mount,_Home_of_William_Wordsworth.jpg



Paine's Rights of Man, all proclaiming the dignity of common life and uttering the same

passionate cry against every form of class or caste oppression were read by one and all.

The period under consideration begins in the latter half of the reign of George III and ends

with the accession of Victoria in 1837.In 1783, King George recognized the independence of

the United States of America unconsciously proclaiming the triumph of liberty which had

been the ideal of English literature for more than a thousand years; though it was not till

1832, when the Reform Bill became the law of the land, and England fulfilled the dream of

democracy upheld for centuries by her writers.

The following half century was one of great turmoil, yet of steady advance in English life.

The storm center of the political unrest was the French Revolution. It was an uprising which

proclaimed the natural rights of man and the abolition of class distinctions, leading to a

multiplication of patriotic clubs and societies in England asserting the doctrine of Liberty,

Equality & Fraternity, upheld by the Revolution. There were two sets of reaction against the

revolution: the younger generation of England hailed the new French republic and offered it

friendship whereas the older generation looked on with horror on the turmoil in France and,

resourcesforhistoryteachers.wikispaces.com



forced the two nations into war. Hostilities continued till 1815 ending in the destruction of

Napoleon and the restoration of Bourbon Dynasty. Literary Historian Edward Albert observes

that the elder writers of the period, with Wordsworth and Coleridge especially, hailed the

new era with joy. Then, as the revolution took unexpected turns hope was replaced by

disappointment, disillusionment, dejection and despair as particularly evident in the case of

Wordsworth. Though, the younger writers as Leigh Hunt, Shelley and Keats still adhered to

the principles of revolutionary doctrines the enthusiasm had waned.

The conclusion of the war between France and England led to economic nightmare in the

form of low wages, unemployment and heavy taxation, finally culminating in the concession

of the Reform Bill of 1832. The bill however did not lead to expected outcomes, and for the

thinking minds the shroud of disappointment continued to envelop the spirit. The causes of

the looming revolution were rooted in the economic nightmare.

By her invention in steel and machinery, and the carrying trade, England had become the

workshop of the world. Where on the one hand her wealth had increased beyond the

wildest dreams; the unequal distribution of that wealth had far reaching impacts. The

invention of machinery had already thrown thousands of skilled hand workers out of

employment; heavy duties were levied on corn and wheat in order to protect a few

agriculturists, and bread rose to famine prices leading to starvation. It was a classic case of

the rich getting richer and the poor poorer with nobles, landowners, manufacturers, and

merchants living in increasing luxury and skilled laborers facing unemployment, wives and

little children forced to work in mines and factories, where sixteen hours' labor was hardly

enough to make ends meet.

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and Thomas Paine's Rights of Man exercised an enormous

influence in England. Smith wrote to uphold the doctrine that labor is the only source of a

nation's wealth, and that any attempt to force labor into unnatural channels, or to prevent it

by protective duties from freely obtaining the raw materials for its industry, is unjust and

destructive. Paine was a passionate devout of popular liberty. His Rights of Man published in

London in 1791, was like one of Burns's lyric outcries against institutions which oppressed

humanity. Coming so soon after the destruction of the Bastille, it added fuel to the flames

kindled in England by the French Revolution.

The situation was brought under control when the long Continental war came to an end with

Napoleon's overthrow at Waterloo, in 1815; and England, having gained enormously in



prestige abroad, now turned to the work of reform at home. The reforms included the

destruction of the African slave trade; the mitigation of horribly unjust laws that slotted

poor debtors and petty criminals in the same class; the prevention of child labor; the

concession to the freedom of the press; the extension of manhood suffrage; the abolition of

restrictions against Catholics in Parliament along with the establishment of hundreds of

popular schools; the crowning glory being proclamation for the emancipation of all slaves in

all the colonies, in 1833. ( Adapted from : J.Long, Chapter X- The Age of Romanticism

,ENGLISH LITERATURE - Project Gutenberg , www.gutenberg.org/files/10609/10609-

h/10609-h.htm)

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10609/10609-h/10609-h.htm



John Constable's Dedham Vale of 1802, en.wikipedia.org

Literary Background: Romanticism

When England began her mighty work of reform literature suddenly developed a new

creative spirit as evident in the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Constable



in the prose of Scott, Jane Austen, Lamb, and De Quincey. Even as the old institutions

seemed crumbling with the Bastille, Coleridge and Southey dreamt of an ideal

commonwealth, in which the principles of More's Utopia should be put in practice and

Wordsworth wrote, ―Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,But to be young was very heaven‖

(‗The French Revolution as It Appeared to Enthusiasts at Its Commencement‘, 5-6).

Romanticism in English Literature can be said to have begun with the publication of lyrical

Ballads by William Wordsworth and S.T Coleridge. In the ‗Preface‘ to the second edition of

lyrical Ballads Wordsworth described poetry as ―the spontaneous overflow of powerful

feelings‖, a premise that can be read as the touchstone of romantic poetry. The Romantic

movement was preceded by several related developments in the preceding century marked

by the new appreciation of medieval romance from which the movement derived its name.

The medieval romance was a tale or ballad boasting of chivalric adventure, individual

heroism and exotic locales; it was also a contrast to the prevailing classical forms of

literature with emphasis on contrived, formal elegance.

The first phase of the Romantic movement as seen in Germany was characterized by

novelty in terms of content and style with emphasis on the mystical, the subconscious and

the supernatural. The proponents of the phase included Holderlin, Goethe and Schelling.

The second phase of the Romantic movement (1805-1830) was underscored by its

attentiveness to national origins, imitation of native folklore, folk ballads and poetry, folk

dance and music and the previously ignored medieval and Renaissance works as apparent in

the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott. It was in this phase that English Romantic poetry is

seen reaching its zenith with the works of Keats, Byron and Shelley. A byproduct of the

interest in the exotic, the far and the remote is the ‗gothic, distinguished further by the

supernatural as obvious in the works of Mary Shelley, C.R Maturin, Marquis de Sade, E.T.A

Hoffman etc. By the 1820s the movement had spread throughout Europe represented by

exploring the historical and cultural inheritance of individual nations and exceptional

individuals, exemplified by the works of Thomas De Quincey, William Hazlitt and the Bronte

sisters in England.



John Constable, The Hay Wain, 1821, Art of the United Kingdom - Wikipedia, the free

encyclopedia

The essence of Romanticism was that literature must reflect all that is spontaneous and

unaffected in nature and in man and reflect the same. Imagination, being elevated as the

supreme faculty of mind, perceived as the ultimate creative power, helping to constitute

reality, as much depended on perception. British literary critic Marilyn Butler (1981) cites

M.H Abrams as echoing Schlegel‘s argument in his book The Mirror and Lamp (1953) when

he argues about the difference between the Romantic writer and the eighteenth century

writer.

Abrams maintains that whereas for the for the classicist the work of art resembles a mirror,

passively mimetic reproducing reality as it is, for the Romantic it is more of a lamp

reflecting images not of the outer world but the inner world of the poet. Art therefore

becomes subjective and intuitive as opposed to rationalistic as seen earlier. Imagination was


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hay_Wain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_of_the_United_Kingdom




thus extolled as the ultimate synthesizing faculty enabling the reconciliation of discordant

elements in the world. The literary independence was expressed remarkably in "Kubla Khan"

and "The Ancient Mariner," of Coleridge, etching two imaginative scenarios, one of the

populous Orient, the other of the lonely sea. In Wordsworth this literary independence led

him inward to the heart of common things investing the common life of nature and that of

common men and women with much significance and goodness: ―Finds tongues in trees,

books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything.‖(Shakespeare, As

You Like It, 2.1:12-17)

Mill at Gillingham, Dorset,England, 1825-26 - John Constable - www.john · Mill at

Gillingham, Dorset, 1825-26

To the Romantics "Nature" meant many things: a healing power, a source of subject and

image, a refuge from the artificial constructs of civilization, including artificial language;

viewed as "organic," rather than, as in the scientific or rationalist view, as a system of

"mechanical" laws, for Romanticism displaced the rationalist view of the universe as a

machine with the analogue of an "organic" image, a living tree or mankind itself. The

Romantics gave greater attention both to describing natural phenomena accurately and to



capturing "sensuous nuance". Symbolism and myth were given prominence seen as human

aesthetic correlatives of the emblematic language of nature, offering a variety of

suggestions in the attempt of expressing the inexpressible.

The Romantic age was also an age of poetry. The previous century, with its practical outlook

on life, was largely one of prose; but now, as in the Elizabethan Age, the young enthusiasts

turned naturally to poetry as manifest in the poetry of Scott, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron,

Shelley, Keats, Moore, and Southey. Of its prose works, those of Scott alone have attained

a very wide reading, though the essays of Charles Lamb and the novels of Jane Austen have

slowly won for their authors a secure place in the history of our literature. It was during this

period that woman assumed, for the first time, an important place in our literature

permitted for the first time some slight chance of education and entry into the intellectual

arena.

The age produced a new type of novel with stories of supernatural terror. Anne Radcliffe

(1764-1823) being one of the most successful writers of this school of exaggerated

romance. Her novels, with their azure-eyed heroines, haunted castles, trapdoors, bandits,

abductions, rescues in the nick of time, and a general medley of overwrought joys and

horrors were immensely popular. The works of Jane Austen, with her charming descriptions

of everyday life, and of Maria Edgeworth are also indelible. Two other women who attained

a more or less lasting fame were Hannah More, poet, dramatist, and novelist, and Jane

Porter along with Fanny Burney (Madame D'Arblay) and several other writers. In this age

literary criticism became firmly established with the help of magazines as the Edinburgh

Review (18O2), The Quarterly Review (1808), Blackwood's Magazine (1817),

the Westminster Review (1824), The Spectator (1828), The Athenæum (1828), and Fraser's

Magazine (1830). (Adapted from:

‗Romanticism‘,academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html )



biographical note

Literary historian J. Long(2004) suggests that to understand the life of the person who, in

Tennyson's words, "uttered nothing base," it is well to read first The Prelude, which records

the impressions made upon Wordsworth's mind from his earliest recollection until his full

manhood, in 1805, when the poem was completed. Long reads a natural division in

Wordsworth‘s life into four periods: that of childhood and youth, in the Cumberland Hills,

from 1770 to 1787; followed by a period of uncertainty, of storm and stress, including his

university life at Cambridge, his travels abroad, and his revolutionary experience, from 1787

to 1797; a short but significant period of finding himself and his work, from 1797 to 1799;

and finally, a long period of retirement in the northern lake region, where he was born, and

impressed considerably by nature so much so that her influence is reflected in all his

poetry. When one has outlined these four periods he has told almost all that can be told of a

life which is marked, not by events, but largely by spiritual experiences.

First Period: Born on April 7, 1770 in Cockermouth, Cumberland to John and Anne

Wordsworth, William Wordsworth was the second of the five children in the Wordsworth

family. His father, John Wordsworth was a law agent and rent collector for Lord Lonsdale



and provided the family with a decent lifestyle. After the death of Anne Wordsworth in 1778

young William was sent to a grammar school near Windermere followed by college

education in St. John‘s College, Cambridge.

Always close to Nature, Wordsworth enjoyed hiking and during his summer vacation of 1788

explored the Cumberland county. In 1790 he went on a walking tour to France, Switzerland

and Germany and in 1791, after graduation, trekked through Wales. Inspired by the French

Revolution, the same year he went to France again only to come back in the following year -

due to paucity of money- without his love, Annette Vallon and the daughter (Caroline) she

bore him out of wedlock. Wordsworth was, however, unable to return to France for the next

nine years due to the Anglo-French war followed by the reign of terror.

Second Period: The second period of Wordsworth's life began with his university course at

Cambridge, in 1787. Cambridge was then a collection of sixteen colleges. Wordsworth

joined St. John‘s College. His entrance to the college was secured by his maternal uncle

Cookson who was one of the fifty fellows who ran it. According to Dale Anderson (2003)

Cookson expected that Wordsworth who was an excellent student would follow his Uncle‘s

example earning bachelor‘s degree with honors and winning one of the fellowships

earmarked for students from Cumberland.

While a fellow Wordsworth, Cookson thought, would earn his master‘s degree and wait for a

position in the Clergy, after which he would marry and settle down to a respectable life of a

clergyman. But Wordsworth proved to be a very ordinary scholar reading what interested

him rather than what was prescribed in the curriculum. He read plenty, the classical

authors, Italian authors in the original, newer poets and novelists yet to be prescribed in the

curriculum and major writers like Chaucer. Among his distractions were boating on the Cam

river, reading newspapers in coffee houses and attending student parties. In The Prelude he

wrote of his liking for enjoyment in this period: ―[m]y heart/Was social and loved idleness

and joy‖(as cited by Anderson).

The third book of The Prelude provides a dispassionate account of student life, with its trivial

occupations, its pleasures and general aimlessness. Wordsworth was motivated by a

growing interest in the conflict in France; an interest in the parliament debates had further

fuelled his interest in politics. The Revolution was also taking unexpected turns. Louis XVI

had tried to escape from Paris, in an effort to join the armies of other counties assembled

by other rulers interested in protecting the monarchy, but he was captured and brought



back to Paris. At this moment, the Revolution in favour of the rights of man greatly

appealed to the young, idealistic Wordsworth.

Anderson finds similarities and parallels between France and England and that of

Wordsworth‘s personal life. Both in France and England the revolutionaries were trying to

tear down a social system of gross inequality in which the nobility and the clergy owned all

the power and wealth. On the personal front, he and his family was also a victim as Lord

Lowther had mistreated his family and was still withholding the money due to them.

Wordsworth was also being pressurized into a career which did not interest him.

Wordsworth set off to France in November 1792 spending some time in Paris and then

moving to New Orleans where he met the young Annette Vallon, twenty- five years of age,

daughter of a surgeon, and against the Revolution. Despite her being a Protestant and her

family committed to the King, Wordsworth grew close to Vallon. He followed her to Blois

when she left Orleans. It was at this time that he also spent time with two French

republicans: Michael Beaupuy and Henri Gregorie who persuaded him to believe that the old

regime was indeed evil.

Recording the trek of the 1790 trek through Europe with Robert Jones Wordsworth now

wrote his ―Descriptive Sketches‖ describing his experiences. The trip was made amidst great

turmoil in France with the Revolution having begun a year earlier. Louis XVI ruled but only

in name and it was the National Assembly that wielded the real power. The poem reflects

Wordsworth‘s thought process at the time beseeching God to end all evils prevalent due to

monarchy.

As time passed things began getting difficult for Wordsworth on all fronts. Annette became

pregnant, he was running out of money and the Revolution entered a bloody phase with a

Parisian mob massacring the king‘s guards. The National Assembly announced the abolition

of monarchy and a mob broke into prisons of Paris killing hundreds of people opposing the

Revolution as well as innocents. The situation was getting difficult for members of the clergy

as well as foreigners. Wordsworth was obliged to leave France primarily due to paucity of

funds. In 1793 Wordsworth came out with his Descriptive sketches and his popularity grew

with the publication of Lyrical ballads in 1798. With Poems in Two Volumes his popularity

continued to rise and he was appreciated for his originality by one and all. Among the most

appreciated and remembered poems were Michael, The old Cumberland Beggar, She dwelt

among the untrodden ways, Strange fits of passion have I known, and Nutting.



In 1794 he was reunited with his sister Dorothy who was his companion and friend till her

mental decline in 1830s. In 1795 he met Coleridge and there developed a strong tie

between the trio.

Third Period: Between 1797-1798 both the friends met nearly daily to discuss their ideas

on poetry. It is assumed that in 1797 the new Romantic movement in English literature

assumed definite form. Wordsworth and Coleridge retired to the Quantock Hills, Somerset,

arriving at the deliberate purpose to make literature "adapted to interest mankind

permanently," which, they declared, classic poetry could never do. Wordsworth's sister

Dorothy, was their silent partner, while they worked together on what would come out as

Lyrical Ballads of 1798.

In their partnership Coleridge was to take up the "supernatural, or at least romantic"; while

Wordsworth was "to give the charm of novelty to things of everyday ... by awakening the

mind's attention from the lethargy of custom and directing it to the loveliness and the

wonders of the world before us." The two poems of the volume, "The Rime of the Ancient

Mariner," Coleridge's masterpiece, and "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,"

expressing Wordsworth's poetical creed, reflect the spirit of their work. (Long 2004)

Lyrical Ballads and Other Poems was also conceptualized in this period and was in print in

1798. Wordsworth wrote a large share of the collection, nineteen poems. From March to

May 1798, Wordsworth wrote almost 1500 lines of poetry based on stories from books read

or heard. The most notable of these poems was ―Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern

Abbey‖.

The poem, like many originated in a walk. This walk was to the ruins of Tintern Abbey, a

former monastery in Southern Wales. It was in this year that they also made a trip to

Germany following which Wordsworth settled near Grasmere in his dearly loved Lake

District. The cottage that they moved in is now known famously as the ‗Dove Cottage‘.

Wordsworth began his work on the new edition of Lyrical ballads which was to include his

Lucy and Matthew poems.



Countryside landscapes, Lake District, photo by: J, used under Creative Commons License.

Fourth Period: The second edition of Lyrical Ballads came out in 1801. This time it was not

published anonymously but had Wordsworth‘s name. An addition made to the second

edition was a preface explaining the theory of poetry represented by the poems. The

treatise underscored the new movement in poetry that had been ushered in: Romanticism.

It discussed the elements of poetry that were characterized by new subject and language.

The elevated language and style of the neo-classical poetry was to be replaced by ―language

really used by men‖, and the subject of the poems were to be ―incidents and situations from

common life‖.



He stated his theory definitely and at length in a preface to the second edition

of 'Lyrical Ballads,' published in 1800, a discussion which includes incidentally

some of the finest general critical interpretation ever made of the nature and

meaning of poetry. Wordsworth declared: 1. Since the purpose of poetry is to

present the essential emotions of men, persons in humble and rustic life are

generally the fittest subjects for treatment in it, because their natures and

manners are simple and more genuine than those of other men, and are kept

so by constant contact with the beauty and serenity of Nature. 2. Not only

should artificial poetic diction (like that of the eighteenth century) be rejected,

but the language of poetry should be a selection from that of ordinary people

in real life, only purified of its vulgarities and heightened so as to appeal to

the imagination. (In this last modification lies the justification of rime.) There

neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose

and that of poetry. (Robert Huntington Fletcher, A History of English

Literature)

For more click on the link below:

William Wordsworth - A History of English Literature, classiclit.about.com

In 1802 after the declaration of the Peace of Amiens Wordsworth and Dorothy visited France

to meet Annette and Caroline. Wordsworth now wanted to marry Mary Hutchinson who he

had grown close to. He also felt that his relation with Annette Vallon needed to be resolved.

It is indicated by literary historians that Wordsworth communicated to Vallon that she could

harbor no hopes of marrying him, and provided Caroline with a settled sum each year once

he became financially comfortable. Thereafter Wordsworth came back to England and

married Mary Hutchinson. He also came into inheritance owed by Lord Lonsdale since the

death of John Wordsworth in 1783.

http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/rfletcher/bl-rfletcher-history-10-wwordsworth.htm



W. Crowbent, 1907, Portrait of Dorothy Wordsworth, depicting her later in life, (drawing

from a photograph). en.wikipedia.org

en.wikipedia.org

Wordsworth completed The Prelude in 1805 but the record of his development as a poet

that ran into fourteen books was published only in 1850 after his death as he thought it was

unprecedented for a poet to dwell so much upon himself unless put in an appropriate

context. The Prelude was thus intended to be a part of a broader philosophical work titled

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Crowbent&action=edit&redlink=1



The Recluse, a work divided into three parts, which unfortunately could not be completed

due to failing inspiration. The Excursion was another section of this work though it was

published in 1814.

Wordsworth had five children with Mary Hutchinson. He underwent a phase of emotional

upheaval with the death of his brother in 1805 and the estrangement from Coleridge in

1810 followed by the death of his children Catherine and Thomas in 1812. In the year 1828

Wordsworth and Coleridge reconciled and toured the Rhineland together .In 1838 Durham

and Oxford University conferred upon him the honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree.

The family reached financial security with Wordsworth‘s securing a position as Distributor of

Stamps in Westmorland. Though Wordsworth continued to write but in the period

between1820-1850 he published little except the volumes, Yarrow Revisited in 1831 and

The Borderers in 1842. In 1850 he suffered an attack of pleurisy confining him to bed for a

month. He died on April 13, 1850. The Prelude was published in the same year.

(Adapted from: William Wordsworth: Biography – The Victorian Web,

www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/bio.html)

Wordsworth‟s Biographical Time-line

http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/bio.html




1770

Wordsworth is born

in the Lake District.

1778

Wordsworth‟s

mother dies.

1779

Wordsworth is sent

away to boarding

school in

Hawkshead.

1783

His father dies.

1787

Wordsworth attends

St. John's College,

Cambridge, where he

is an indifferent

student.

1791

Graduates from

Cambridge.

1791 Travels to France,

where he meets

Annette Vallon with

whom he has a

daughter, Caroline.

1795 Wordsworth comes

into an inheritance

of nine hundred



pounds sterling.

1797 Wordsworth and his

sister Dorothy move

to Alfoxden House,

close to Coleridge's

home.

1798 Coleridge, William

and Dorothy

Wordsworth travel to

Germany.

Wordsworth is

unhappy.

1798

Lyrical Ballads – a

collaboration

between

Wordsworth and

Coleridge - is

published.

1799 The Wordsworths

return to England,

and settle in

Grasmere, in a house

called Dove Cottage.

1802 The war between

England and France

ends, and

Wordsworth goes to

France to meet his

daughter Caroline.



1802 Wordsworth marries

Mary Hutchinson.

They have been

friends since

childhood.

Wordsworth's sister,

Dorothy, lives with

the couple.

1843

Wordsworth is

named Poet

Laureate. He is

reluctant to accept

the honour, claiming

he is too old, but the

Prime Minister

persuades him.

Wordsworth

becomes the only

Poet Laureate to

write no official

poetry

1850 Wordsworth

dies of pleurisy. A

few months after his

death, his wife

publishes The

Prelude.

Adapted from: www.aoifesnotes.com/leaving-cert/ordinary.../Wordsworth%20HL.pdf

Wordsworth‟s Treatment Of Nature

http://www.aoifesnotes.com/leaving-cert/ordinary.../Wordsworth%20HL.pdf



The Romantic Movement had for its political background the French Revolution and the

developing Industrial Revolution in England that changed the physical appearance and the

social structure of the country, with new notions of psychology and philosophy adding to the

turmoil. The era of a complete break from the past had crept in silently and it was the

Romantic poets who first took on the cudgels of change, refusing to adhere to the earlier

eighteenth century view that it was the polite society that made men capable of civilized

achievements. It was also a time when areas of imagination and sensibility also started

getting explored.

Wordsworth can be read in the light of Ecocriticism. [Ecocriticism has been defined as ―the

study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment‖ (Glotfelty 1996).

According to Ursula K. Heise , Ecocriticism ―analyzes the ways in which literature represents

the human relation to nature at particular moments of history, what values are assigned to

nature and why, and how perceptions of the natural shape literary tropes and genres. In

turn, it examines how such literary figures contribute to shaping social and cultural attitudes

toward the environment‖ (Heise, 1999).]

Wordsworth not only explores the idea of nature and the non-human world as an integral

part of the human world but also celebrates the harmonizing, rejuvenating and regenerating

features of the natural world. His works become more relevant for ‗Green Reading‘ as he

also gives an insight into the background of the economical changes, effecting the

topography of England, hinting about the shift in the religious sentiments during the time,

and its effect on humans; taking them farther away from the ―present‖ embodied in Nature,

into the realm of the ―here after‖. Basil Willey (1960) observes that Wordsworth‘s poetic

ideas especially his leanings toward Nature can be traced to the deistic tradition of the

seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The emotion of the ‗numinous‘ formerly associated

with super nature, had become attached to nature herself and by the end of the eighteenth

century the divinity, the sacredness of nature was, to those affected by this tradition,

almost a first datum of consciousness.

For Wordsworth nature becomes more of a living being than an inanimate object of

admiration. Pulling it from the background to the very focus of relationship, Nature for

Wordsworth acts more like a friend and companion. Wordsworth‘s philosophy of Nature sees

humans not severed from Nature but as her integral part. In his poem ‗Intimations of

Immortality from Recollection of Early Childhood‘ (1807) Wordsworth sees childhood as a



phase in which humans are extremely sensitive to all natural influences, an epitome of

gladness and beauty of the world.

The kinship with Nature and with God, which glorifies childhood ought to extend throughout

the human life and ennoble it as it does in the childhood. In ‗Tintern Abbey‘ also

Wordsworth shares the same message. He suggests a special relationship between himself

and Nature. In the extant draft of The Prelude, probably written in 1799-1800 he writes:

―Ah not in vain, ye Beings of the hills,\And ye that walk the woods and open heaths\By

moon or starlight, thus from my first dawn\Of childhood, did ye love to intertwine\The

passions that buildup our human soul,\Not with mean and vulgar works of Man,\But with

high objects, with eternal things,\With life and nature, purifying thus\The elements of

feeling and of thought,\And sanctifying, by such discipline,\Both pain and fear, until we

recognize\A grandeur in the beatings of the heart‖ [Book I, 428-441, (1799-1805)].

John Constable depicting a rural scene in his painting on river Stour between the English

counties of Suffolk and Essex, U.K, The Hay Wain, 1821, Art of the United Kingdom -

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hay_Wain





en.wikipedia.org

In poems like ‗Tintern Abbey‘, ‗The Rainbow‘, ‗Ode to Duty‘ and ‗Intimations to Immortality‘

Wordsworth‘s views on Nature become more pronounced. Wordsworth believes that the

crowded life of cities tend to weaken and pervert the element of humanity characterizing

the humans, therefore a return to the natural and simple way of life is the only remedy to

deal with human sadness and despair. The natural instincts and pleasures of childhood are

the true touchstones of happiness in this life. Unlike the ephemeral, artificial pleasures that

wither away with time, these natural, simple pleasures of life remain a permanent means

for everlasting happiness.

It is the simple life of the common man with tales of toil and love that for Wordsworth

become the only subject for permanent literary interest. To this natural philosophy of man

Wordsworth adds a religious dimension by believing that in every natural object there is a

reflection of the divine spirit. Nature is everywhere transfused with this spirit and so are

humans. Nature appeals to humans through this very spirit that imbues human life with an

everlasting continuity. In ‗A Slumber did my Spirit Seal‘, emphasizing the point, he says for

Lucy:― She seemed a thing that could not feel\ The touch of earthly years\No motion has

she now, no force\She neither hears nor sees\Rolled round in earth‘s diurnal course\With

rocks, and stones, and trees.‖ (A Slumber did my Spirit Seal by William Wordsworth : The

Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org)

Wordsworth‘s treatment of Nature was both unique and original. Till now Nature had been

treated as a mere background for the interplay of human passions and emotions or as an

object of beauty, but for Wordsworth Nature was not a mere landscape but a living, organic

entity with a personality and a life of its own. It was his aim to interpret and give expression

to this indwelling spirit. He sought to reveal the invisible spirit behind Nature‘s beauty and

illuminate her sustaining influence on the spirit of man.

He saw Nature not only an attractive arrangement of form and colour but alive and sentient

with a life of its own permeated and pervaded by an omnipresent spirit. Wordsworth

believed that between the spirit of Nature and the mind of man, there was prearranged

harmony that enabled Nature to communicate its own thoughts to man, and man to reflect

upon them until absolute union between them was established.

He also saw Nature as an entity he could take recourse to when fatigued by the artificial life

of city. Having escaped from the city (London) to the ―prison walls‖ of which he was

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confined for a long time, Wordsworth a ―discontented sojourner‖ feels elated to return to

the country side where he truly belongs. He rejoices on reaching the country side, his

elation obvious in these lines: ―Oh there is blessing in this gentle breeze\That blows from

the green fields and the clouds\And from the sky; it beats against my cheek\And seems half

conscious of the joy it gives\O welcome Messenger! O welcome Friend! \A captive greets

thee, coming from a house\Of bondage, from yon City‘s walls set free\A prison where he

hath been long immured‖ (The Prelude, Book I, 1-8).

As a boy, Wordsworth was a passionate nut gatherer. In the poem ‗Nutting‘ he recounts the

strange experience that befell him. On a beautiful day Wordsworth went to the forest in

search of nuts. He roamed over ‗pathless rocks‘, ‗through beds of matted fern‘ and ‗tangled



thickets‘ when the unsullied beauty of a virgin spot entranced him. It was an obscure spot,

unseen by human eye with small waterfalls adding to the charm. For some time Wordsworth

sat under a tree, calmly contemplating the beauty of the scene. Then the beauty was

ravaged and while he was exulting in the results of the merciless ravage, he realized with a

shock that he had ‗inflicted injury upon the life that was all about him‘. Wordsworth felt the

reproof of the silent trees and the sky, therefore he warns the other travelers to walk

through the woods gently ‗for there is a spirit in the woods‘. To Wordsworth these symbols

of Nature deserve the importance and the respect, which the humans hold for others.

The poem, ‗Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood‘, was

written in 1803 when Wordsworth was at the height of his poetic powers, and yet was

conscious of its gradual decline. He found that the source of his inspiration was drying up,

that his ‗visionary experiences‘ were becoming less and less frequent, and the freshness of

inspiration that he had found in Nature was slowly ebbing.

When he was a child Wordsworth saw Nature clothed in radiant splendour but such a,

―Celestial light‖ that he saw enveloping his muse was slowly losing its vitality. The fact that

Nature was losing some sheen for Wordsworth was like losing his muse; he was deeply

stirred. In the year 1798, Wordsworth revisited the Wye after a lapse of five years. The

renewed presence of an often remembered scene excites and makes him acutely conscious

of a change in attitude towards Nature. For a lover of Nature like Wordsworth these five

years of separation from Tintern seem very tedious and he feels overjoyed on returning. His

happiness is evident in the poem and reflect his love for Nature.

In the poem ‗Leech-Gatherer or Resolution and Independence‘ the ―sky-lark warbling in the

sky‖ instills Wordworth with so much happiness that he compares himself to a playful

―hare‖. The nonhuman becomes such a persona of happiness that Wordsworth prefers

himself transformed in to a nonhuman too, ―[A]nd I be thought me of the playful hare.‖

Wordsworth draws important lessons from the hardships faced by common people like the

leech gatherer who despite the difficulties they face muster up courage from deep within

themselves and deal with life as it comes.

Ode: Intimations Of Immortality From Recollections Of Early Childhood



www.goodreads.com

The Earth, and every common sight, To me did seem Apparell‘d in celestial light, The glory and freshness of a dream.

It is not now as it hath been of yore;_ Turn wheresoe‘er I may, By night or day, The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

- Wordsworth, Ode on Intimations of Immortality

Wordsworth‘s Ode on Intimations of Immortality or Immortality Ode was completed in 1804

and was published in Poems, in Two Volumes in the year 1807. In irregular Pindaric ode, it

is written in eleven variable stanzas with variable rhyme schemes in iambic lines with two to

five stressed syllables. The rhyme varies falling into alternate lines, couplets, sometimes

occuring within a single line. The poem was completed in two parts with the first four

stanzas composed in 1802 about childhood. On the completion of the first part of the poem

he handed a copy to Coleridge who as a response came up with, ‗Dejection: An Ode‘.

The fourth stanza of the Ode ends with a question which Wordsworth was finally able to

answer with the additional seven stanzas completed in early 1804. First printed in 1807, it

was in 1815 that it was edited and came to its current version. Regarding the subject of the

Ode Wordsworth wrote to Catherine Clarkson in January, 1815: ― This poem rests entirely

upon two recollections of childhood, one that is splendour in the objects of sense which is

http://www.goodreads.com/



passed away, and the other an indisposition to bend to the law of death as sapplying to our

own particular case.‖( Sengupta and Cama 2008:173). The feelings of loss are evident in

the first two stanzas, a loss that has not been recompensed. The feeling is made more

poignant in the fourth stanza when the poet asks,‖ Whither is fled the visionary

gleam?/Where is it now, the glory and the dream?‖.

The three movements that the poem can be split into describe concerns about lost vision,

age causing man to lose sight of the divine and the hope that the memory of the divine

allowing sympathy with others. The poem uses the concept of pre-existence, the idea that

the soul existed before the body and the human mind in its childhood state remembers

some glimpses of the pre natal state. The idea is utilised to convey the message that with

maturity humans lose the ability to witness the divine in nature (Wikipedia).

The Platonic concept of ―anamnesis‖ or ― recollection‖ acts as a major trope in the poem

where the human mind through conscious recollection is capable of remembering some

eternal truths, the power of recollection, however diminshing with time leading to a feeling

of dejection. The importance of the child is underscored in having been invested with that

divine power which is lost with the passage of time. Alec King postulates that the poem is

about two childhoods, the visible and the invisible. He believes that it is for understanding

the mysterious nature of childhood that Wordsworth ‗invented‘ the myth of pre-existence

(Cowell 93). He argues that the entrance of the soul into human life is but an interlude in

its immortal life. At this time it is exiled from its divine home retaining in its initial years

memories of its home and its divine existence. The vision is dulled with time leading to a

feeling of loss.As opposed to this ‗invisible‘ child is the ‗visible‘ one that can be seen in the

daily activities and play of children.

The poem, however, does not end on a note of dejection as the adult is now blessed with a

perception that has grown out of loss, thus he is able to appreciate the world better in all its

beauty.The timely intervention here comes from nature herself who helps the narrator find

the lost vision in her glory. It is due to the realization of what he has gained through nature

makes the narrator claim: ― [T]o me the meanest flower that blows can give/Thoughts that

do often lie too deep for tears‖.

Neil Heims observes that for Wordsworth the poet is the legislator who discovers and sets

down the laws of nature, and guides us by his poetry to a subtle sensitivity, allowing



knowledge and coformation from others. This is done through the special understanding

that is a part of the poet‘s faculties that in turn has an influence on the understanding and

affection of others, helping them perceive the unity of creation. But this faculty diminishes

with time, as we grow older. ―By binding together perception and perceiver, Wordworth

sought to retrieve and restore this vision. Experiencing the unity of world of Nature and of

consciousness not only indicates the organic connection of all things in Nature but also

suggests to Wordsworth Soul‘s immortality.‖ (Heims 2003:64)

In a thousand valleys far and wide, Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm, And the babe leaps up on his mother's arm:— I hear, I hear, with joy I hear! —But there's a tree, of many, one,

A single field which I have look'd upon, Both of them speak of something that is gone: The pansy at my feet Doth the same tale repeat: Whither is fled the visionary gleam?

Where is it now, the glory and the dream? - Wordsworth, Ode on Intimations of Immortality

There are other views also regarding the interpretation of the poem.Critic Marjorie Levinson,

however, believes that the Ode is not about childhood but an allegorical meditation on the

failure of the French Revolution. She argues that it was the signing of Peace of Amiens that

occasioned the poem. The ode, being a formal choice for a poem marking a national event,

highlighted the dejection that washed over the poet ; a result of his expectations out of a

Revolution that went all awry in terms of its objectives as well as execution.Earlier Nature

was seen as Goddess of the revolution, its driving force signifying human fulfillment in time.

During this time the common was seen as sublime, the individual feeling was that of being a

part of a vast human family. The pastoral community as etched in stanzas three and four



represent an era that is gone, the narration implying the human cognitive debility the result

of political disillusionment ( Levinson 1986: 295-296).

Wordsworth writes, ―But there‘s a Tree, of many, one/ A single Field which I have looked

upon/ Both of them speak of something that is gone.‖ Levinson observes that by associating

the Tree and Field with the emblems and events of a glorious and irrecoverable era the

narrator indicates his failure to liberate the pastoral memory from its political context. The

―Tree‖ signifies the ―Tree of Liberty‖ and the ―field‖, ― Champ de Mars‖ of France.

The comment of David Daiches becomes pertinent here when he says that it took

Wordsworth his unhappiness to see his own country proclaim war against France, his

disillusion with the course taken by the French Revolution, the rationalism and the

humanitarianism of William Godwin‘s Political Justice, to find a compensating philosophy.

His subsequent discovery of Godwin‘s rational scorn for the fundamental human

relationships rendered his philosophy barren and unacceptable and he entered a period of

despair and confusion from which he was rescued by the influence of his sister Dorothy and

his friend Coleridge. Daiches continues about Wordsworth, ―it took all this to take stock of

his basic ideas and ambitions and in doing so work out a view of poetry which develop fully

his poetic genius. It was a view which depended on the relation of the poet to the external

world of man and nature.‖ (1990:880)

Tintern Abbey



Tintern Abbey viewed from the far (English) bank of the River Wye, en.wikipedia.org

In darkness and amid the many shapes Of joyless daylight; when the fretful stir Unprofitable, and the fever of the world, Have hung upon the beatings of

my heart-- How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee, O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods, How often has my spirit turned to thee! -Wordsworth, ‖Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey‖

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Wye



Tintern Abbey , en.wikipedia.org

Lines Composed A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey On Revisiting The Banks Of The Wye During A Tour, 13 July 1798

"Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" (often abbreviated to "Tintern Abbey",

or simply "Lines") is a poem by William Wordsworth. Tintern Abbey is located in the

southern Welsh county of Monmouthshire, and was abandoned in 1536. The poem stands

out for Wordsworth's descriptions of the banks of the River Wye and outlines his general

philosophies on nature. The poem's full title, as given in Lyrical Ballads, is "Lines written a

few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour, July 13,

1798". (en.wikipedia.org)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintern_Abbey

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monmouthshire_(historic)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Monasteries

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Wye



In July 1978, Wordsworth along with his sister Dorothy took a walking tour from Salisbury

to Tintern Abbey. Wordsworth was visiting Tintern Abbey after a gap of five years. In the

first visit to Wye he was facing the challenge of seeing his country go to war against France.

The war had a dual impact on him as it not only challenged his loyalty to his homeland and

his sympathies for the French Republicans, but also would weaken his ties with his love,

Annette Vallon and their daughter, Catherine. It was in this state of conflict and

apprehension that he visited the Wye in 1793.

"Tintern Abbey", was conceived during the walk when Wordsworth was visiting the ruins of

Tintern Abbey. Written in blank verse the poem recounts Wordsworth‘s childhood memories

regarding his relationship with nature when he was in complete communion with her.

Though with the passing years the nature of relationship has changed but the memory of

that which existed earlier still has the power of enthusing and energizing the poet; the

presence of his sister, Dorothy reiterating his youthful image of himself, ―My dear, dear

Friend; and in thy voice I catch/The language of my former heart, and read/ My former

pleasures in the shooting lights/Of thy wild eyes…‖ (116-119).

Aware of the power of Nature, and especially that of the Wye, Wordsworth realized that as

his previous visit had sustained him in his times of troubles so will this one enrich him with

beautiful memories. The intensity of childhood experience gives memory the importance it

has in Wordsworth‘s poetry as by recollection it is still possible to regain a glimmer of what

was lost with the erstwhile childhood. The recognition of the previous connection as shared

by an individual earlier and as reflected in another has the power to bring back the child

hood experiences. Wordsworth was part of such an experience when he saw reflected in his

sister the same enjoyment of the natural scenes that once he shared with nature.

―Beholding in her what he once was, even though he has moved away from it, keeps alive in

him some of the power of sympathy he ascribes to the child and, links him with the oneness

of creation and eternity.‖ (Heims 2003:64).

―Modern tourism was relatively new at this time. Neoclassic writers who urged that poets

and others should "follow nature" were talking about universal law and order, the system of

things, or human nature; they were decidedly not thinking about outdoors nature, which

was generally condemned as something opposed to civilized life — in the forms of

mountains, oceans, and great rivers, a deviation from the regularity of creation and, for

people faced with crossing them, a serious impediment to travel. Mainstream eighteenth-

century poets did occasionally write about nature, but almost always for purposes of moral



allegory: the "nature" of Pope's Windsor Forest symbolizes order and harmony in the

universe, and wise readers are enjoined to regulate their lives accordingly.

The mid- and late-eighteenth-century development of

sensitiveness to nature and one's physical surroundings was

at least partly owing not to the attractiveness of nature itself

but to the rise of interest in landscape painting…‖

For more click at the source here:

The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic

Age: Topic 1: Overview, www.wwnorton.com

The poem can be divided into four parts. In the first part Wordsworth is seen visiting the

Wye for the second time beholding all the familiar sights, but where he finds his attitude to

it altered, ―…Once again/ Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs/ That on a wild/secluded,

scene impress/Thoughts of a more deep seclusion…‖( 4-7).

In the second part he acknowledges his debt to this beautiful landscape that sustained him

in his troubled times in the cities, away from the nature‘s pristine beauty. It has also helped

him become aware of life and reality above the quotidian. ―In darkness and amid the many

shapes/of joyless daylight; when the fretful stir/Unprofitable, and the fever of the

world/Have hung upon the beatings of my heart-/How oft, in spirit have I turned to thee‖.

In the third part, his relationship with nature is recorded; how as a boy he enjoyed nature,

giving into a meditative stage where he loved her for her own sake; followed by mystical

insights where he could see the whole universe pervaded by a single spirit, united.

It is in the fourth part of the poem that he turns to his sister, mirrored in her his former

self. Mary Jacobus observes of ―Tintern Abbey‖ that it is a poem ―that completes the shift

from nature to the individual; the poet‘s attitude to an unchanging landscape becomes a

way of measuring the change that has taken place within.‖(Sengupta & Cama 2008:260).

Jacobus opines that memory allows the poet to experience the essential continuity of the

changing self and belief allows him to experience the dimension of one life; in this process

of growth landscape becomes a point of reference to chart the growth of a poet‘s mind.

https://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/romantic/topic_1/welcome.htm

https://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/romantic/topic_1/welcome.htm

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The transition from boyhood to maturity is also seen in ‗Tintern Abbey‘ when Wordsworth

recounts the recompense, which Nature has allowed him for his loss of the exuberance and

raptures of youth. The period between his two visits has been one of disappointment and

disillusionment, but it has expanded his vision. Now no longer ignorant of the sorrows of

humanity, he sees in Nature the revelation of the Divine law, which governs the universe.

The sight of human suffering does not produce harsh feelings in him for now he is aware of

a presence that causes both sorrow and joy and creates balance and harmony.

Though the period between his two visits has been one of disappointment and

disillusionment, it has expanded his vision. Now no longer ignorant of the sorrows of

humanity, he sees in Nature the revelation of the Divine law, which governs the universe.

The sight of human suffering does not produce harsh feelings in him for now he is aware of

a presence that causes both sorrow and joy and creates balance and harmony, ―[F]or I have

learned \To look on nature, not as in the hour\Of thoughtless youth; but hearing often

times\The still, sad music of humanity\...\ A motion and a spirit that impels\ All thinking

things, all objects of all thought\And rolls through all things.‖ (‗Tintern Abbey‘, 90-103)

―Tintern Abbey‖ acts as bridge linking the purely autobiographical poems with that of

humanity. Nature, according to Wordsworth, is to embrace not only inanimate nature but

human nature also. The dichotomy between the mental and material worlds was to

Wordsworth antipathetic and he frequently attempted in his verse a general statement on

the basis of their unity (Winkler 1972:168).

The poem has ecocritical dimensions. Dana Phillips observes, ―By insisting that nature

writing can continue to do what lyric poetry can no longer do and what transcendentalism

could never do, at least according to Benjamin and Rahv, ecocriticism has emphasized not

only the stubbornly traditional character of the form but its more therapeutic aspects as

well. For instance, Frank Stewart observes that nature writers ―seek to make our minds and

our hearts whole again. When we look at nature, they believe, we are looking mainly at

ourselves.‖ (2003:204)



I would like to sum up Wordsworth‘s momentousness by citing Jonathan Bate vis- a- vis

Kate Rigby. Arguing against the charges of New Critics and Deconstructionists that

Romanticism really valorizes human imagination and language, not nature, and that the

ideological function and romantic imagination of the pastoral was to disguise the exploitative

nature of contemporary social relations, Jonathan Bate, as observed by Kate Rigby,

‗repositions Wordsworth in a tradition of environmental consciousness‘ through which

human well-being is understood to be coordinate with the ecological health of the land and

Romantic nature poetry takes on an ambivalent position to the earlier pastoral writing,

‗functioning simultaneously as[its] continuation and critique‘(2002:155).

…And so I dare to hope, Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first I came among these hills; when like a roe I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,

Wherever nature led: more like a man Flying from something that he dreads, than one Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then (The coarser pleasures of my boyish days And their glad animal movements all gone by) To me was all in all. - I cannot paint What then I was. …That time is past, And all its aching joys are now no more, -Wordsworth,‖Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tinterb Abbey‖

Find a link to the J-stor essay, “Dorothy Wordsworth‟s Return to Tintern

Abbey By James Soderholm”: http://l-adam-

mekler.com/soderholm_dww_tintern_abbey_response.pdfl-adam-

mekler.com

Audio & Video Clips: „Tintern Abbey‟

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/william-wordsworth-lines-

tintern-abbey/1516.html

http://l-adam-mekler.com/soderholm_dww_tintern_abbey_response.pdf

http://l-adam-mekler.com/soderholm_dww_tintern_abbey_response.pdf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/william-wordsworth-lines-tintern-abbey/1516.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/william-wordsworth-lines-tintern-abbey/1516.html



Audio& Video Clips : „Ode: Intimations of Immortality‟

www.youtube.com Ode: Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth,

Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 78: I. Poco adagio" by Camille Saint-Saens

Works Cited

--Anderson, Dale. ―Biography of William Wordsworth‖ in William Wordsworth edited by

Harold Bloom (Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2003), 13-15.

--Butler, Marilyn. ―Introduction‖ in Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge edited by Debjani

Sengupta & Shernaz Cama (Delhi: Worldview Critical Editions, 2008), 16.

-- Cowell, Raymond. (ed.). Critics on Wordsworth London: George Allen and Unwin

Ltd.:1973).

-- Daiches, David. ‗Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge.‘ A Critical History Of English

Literature. Volume iv, (Bombay: Allied publishers Ltd. Reprint, 1990), 880.

--en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode:Intimations_of_Immortality as accessed on 6/3/14.

-- Fletcher, Rober, Huntington. William Wordsworth - A History of English Literature,

classiclit.about.com as accessed on 6/3/14.

--Glotfelty, Cheryll. The Ecocriticism Reader. ( University of Georgia Press: Athena &

London, 1996), xviii.

--Heims, Neil. ―Homely in Attire‖: An Introduction to the Poetry of William Wordsworth‖.

William Wordsworth edited by Harold Bloom. op.cit.

-- Heise, Ursula K. ―Forum on Literatures of Environment‖, PMLA 114, (1999): 1097.

--Jacobus, Mary. ―Tintern Abbey‖ and the Renewal of Tradition. Blake, Wordsworth and

Coleridge edited by Sengupta and Cama. op.cit.

http://www.youtube.com/

http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/rfletcher/bl-rfletcher-history-10-wwordsworth.htm



-- Phillips,Dana. The Truth of Ecology: Nature, Culture and Literature in America. (Oxford :

Oxford Univ. Press, 2003).

-- Rigby, Kate. ‗Ecocriticism‘. Introducing Criticism At The 21st Century edited by Julian

Wolfreys. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press. 2002).

--Levinson, Marjorie in Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge Delhi edited by Sengupta & Cama.

op.cit.

--Long, J. Chapter X- The Age of Romanticism ,ENGLISH LITERATURE - Project Gutenberg ,

www.gutenberg.org/files/10609/10609-h/10609-h.htm)

--Romanticism, as accessed on 6/3/14,

academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.html

-- Sengupta, Debjani &Cama, Shernaz. (eds.). Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge (Delhi:

Worldview Critical Editions 2008), 173.

-- Willey, Basil. ―Wordsworth and the Locke Tradition‖, English Romantic Poets: Modern

Essays in Criticism edited by M.H Abrams. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960),93.

--Winkler, R.O.C. ―Words worth‘s Poetry‖, in The Pelican Guide to English Literature: From

Blake to Byron. Edited by Boris Ford (England: Penguin Books Ltd.: 1957, 1972).

--Wordsworth, William. A Slumber did my Spirit Seal by William Wordsworth : The Poetry

Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org

-- Wordsworth: Selected Poems with The Prelude. (Agra:

Educational Publishers, 1970)

-- www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/ww/bio.html, ‗William Wordsworth: Biography – The

Victorian Web‘, as accessed on 6/3/14

--www.aoifesnotes.com/leaving-cert/ordinary.../Wordsworth%20HL.pdf as accessed on

6/3/14





http://www.poetryfoundation.org/


http://www.aoifesnotes.com/leaving-cert/ordinary.../Wordsworth%20HL.pdf

british romantic literature lesson: wordsworth : the poet

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